"There were quite a few structures in the path of the fire and it was only through the good work of the brigades that responded that saved all those structures.

"Overnight we've had up to a dozen brigades there and today we'll be certainly be looking at having much the same number, if not more, depending on availability, plus heavy machinery to start putting lines in and linking up old roads to combat the fire," he said.

Mr Crawford says while no properties are directly under threat this morning residents in the area should check their outbuildings for smouldering embers.

Several roads in the area are closed because of downed power lines, fallen trees and a burned bridge.

Meanwhile, the fire at Elderslie near Broadmarsh is burning within containment lines and the fire service hopes to have it contained by this evening.

Several crews have been patrolling about 18 kilometres of fire edge overnight.

The fire service says it is still not clear how the fire started.

Incident controller Michael Netherton says hopefully the fire will be out by later this morning.

"The plan at this is to completely surround the fire with a boundary and let the fire burn out to safe edges," he said.

"We do have some issues with falling trees, in particular the Bluff Road area."

Late yesterday, it burned close to a number of houses.

An Elderslie resident says that at the height of the blaze yesterday afternoon the fire roared down a gully and came within a hundred metres of her property and others.

"There's a house on the opposite side of the road to us, her back door is singed," she said.

"It was just lucky my husband went over there because it just roared down through the gully and he got over there with only a wet bag - her back door was on fire."